


SGU E5

by Deacon_Heller



Series: Stargate Universe EU C137 [5]
Category: SG1 - Fandom, SGU, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29925408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deacon_Heller/pseuds/Deacon_Heller
Summary: Tensions begin to mount a s Destiny comes under a new commanding officer. Dr. Strom begins interrogating the crew members one by one forcing them to justify every choice they every made, starting with Eli. An unknown entity has begun watching Rush without his knowledge.
Series: Stargate Universe EU C137 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965601
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	SGU E5

For the next two weeks life on Destiny felt like moving into a new house with a strange stepfamily. There were boxes of supplies everywhere no matter how much you unpacked, and the wicked stepmother would randomly appear behind you to criticize whatever you did. 

All of Destiny’s open spaces; the observation room, the exercise room, and even the holding area were crammed with black cases, pallets of materials, and rolling equipment. The halls were lined on each side with small cases and crates making the walkway narrower. There was barely enough room for two people to walk side by side. 

It annoyed Eli, it frustrated Volker and Brody, and it infuriated Rush. As far as he was concerned his time was too valuable to spend it as a mover, and he didn’t hesitate to tell this to Speers in their first conversation on the subject. Young explained Rush in depth to Speers before she ever spoke with him, but Speers was determined to bring a new atmosphere to Destiny. She knew that changing Rush’s behavior was the key to changing everyone else’s.

Unhappy with her first encounter with Rush she decided to take a different approach and address the entire crew at once. She mustered all seventeen of the original crew currently out of stasis into the mess hall to give her address. They stood around waiting for several minutes before Speers entered the mess and began speaking immediately.

“Some of you I have spoken with personally and some I have not. In time I will get to know each and every one of you very well, but right now I want you to get to know me a little better. I’m Brigadier General Melissa Speers, and while I am currently the CO of Destiny, I am also the CO of another ship in the Milky Way named Atlas. While Destiny is now designated as a scientific exploration ship, Atlas is the largest warship humanity has ever created. I’m both here commanding a crew that will eventually reach one hundred and forty people, but Atlas I am commanding a crew of more than six thousand,” Speers began.

“The reason I am explaining this is because I have been commanding Atlas for more than a year, and now I am here. I recognize that these ships are vastly different in purpose and function, but I still expect the same level of professional decorum and performance of duties. I know that you have a mixed background of military and civilian so I am equipping you with the most current manuals for military and civilian performance within the SGC,” Speers nodded at the SRT android Grayson and he unslung a black duffel from his shoulder and reached inside to pull out a stack soft back manuals and he began handing them to the people in the front of the group.

While people were handing them back to the others in the group Speers continued. “You are to read and understand these manuals by,” She looked at her watch, “today is Tuesday…Friday. After that you are expected to adhere strictly to these new rules and regulations as if you were in the SGC on Earth. Destiny had a very relaxed command style before, but that time is over.”

“Is she referring to the carefree ‘do whatever you have to do to keep us all from dying’ command style?” Rush asked quietly.

“Looks that way,” Brody whispered back.

“But it was so fun,” Volker mumbled. “You never knew what was going to kill you next.”

“Contraband such as alcohol,” She pointed at Brody’s Bar, “Is no longer allowed. The still is to be emptied and the equipment restored to its prior function.”

“Ok, that’s over the line,” Volker mumbled. “There’s no way I’m going to survive this sober.”

Brody took a piece of paper from his pocket and slipped it to Eli. “Find me plants with these compounds and I’ll make more.”

“Done.” Eli took the paper without hesitation or even looking at it as he slipped it into his pocket. 

“Mr. Wallace,” Speers called to Eli. He was actually nervous she was going to yell at him for passing notes. “You need to vacate the kino dispenser room and find other quarters. I want the kino room accessible at all times.”

Eli nodded as she went on. 

“And where am I supposed to go, all the pressurized crew quarters are taken.” Eli mumbled as he looked at Rush. 

“No.” Rush blurted out. “My quarters are cramped already.”

“What about the holding area?” Volker suggested before Eli could ask him. 

“Stuffed floor to ceiling,” Eli growled. 

“Observation room?” Brody asked, seeing the pattern. 

“Same,” Eli sighed. 

“Chair interface room?” Rush asked. 

“That should still be locked and off limits,” Eli tilted his head as he thought for a second. “Wonder if that chair reclines.”

The android Dr. Strom stepped forward after Speers finished her address and began speaking. “From this point on you will also be required to keep detailed logs of your work in your fields and reports on all activities as well as your entire time aboard Destiny prior to today. This includes any repairs you have done, and any interactions with the ships systems. All of this material will be compiled into instruction manuals for future expedition crews.” 

He nodded at Grayson and once again the android reached into his duffle bag and took out stacks of white binders and began handing them out. 

“These binders detail what you will log, and how you will log it as well as how to structure and file your reports. This is now one of your duties. Destiny is the first of the exploration class ships that we have discovered and together we are going to make it the flag ship of the fleet. We will set the standard for all the crews that will come after us.”

“Wonderful, in addition the constant threat of unimaginable death there’s now something so much worse, paperwork,” Rush mumbled. Brody and Volker both grimaced. They thought that at the very least they had been freed of the endless papers and writing of academia, but as sure as student loans, it had tracked them across the universe and found them. 

If the task of squandering hours writing reports instead of doing real work wasn’t annoying enough in and of itself, reports were almost always returned to be rewritten because they didn’t contain a sufficient amount of detail. By the third week the civilians found a work around the constant rewriting when Dr. Inman privately told everyone to just end each report by saying that starvation and hypoxia made it impossible to recount any further details. Speers didn’t let the military personnel off so easily. 

Week four under the new CO began something that made the reports seem far less painful. It was the one on one crew reviews with Dr. Strom. Everyone was required to sit down with him for as long as he needed and as many times as he needed them. In these interviews Strom questioned everything that happened prior to stasis. Decisions, motivations, and actions were put under a microscope to determine that crew member’s future aboard the ship. Since Eli was the first one out of stasis and had spent so long alone Strom started with him. 

With Destiny’s direct video access to Auralon Command the communication lab remained one of the few pressurized spaces that was uncluttered and provided the room for Strom’s interviews. When Eli walked in he saw Strom sitting across the table reviewing reports. Eli waited for several seconds but Strom gave no indication that he noticed his arrival. After almost a minute Eli cleared his throat, but still Strom didn’t look up. 

“Ok, I can come back another time,” Eli started to turn away.

“Sit down, Mr. Wallace,” Strom said without looking up.

Eli sat across the table from Strom and waited, But Strom continued his reading for another minute before looking up. Eli had started to drift away with his thoughts, and his gaze slowly glided around the room until Strom looked up. Eli turned to look him in the eyes. They sat in silence like this for several seconds before Strom spoke.

“Mr. Wallace,” Strom began.

“Mr. Strom,” Eli replied. 

“Doctor,” Strom corrected him. “Your file says that you were recruited in an unconventional way. Is this correct?”

“I couldn’t say. I don’t know how anyone else was recruited, but if you’re talking about how they picked me Last Starfighter style, I guess.”

“You solved a mathematical proof in Ancient that was extremely complicated.”

“Well, it did take a month to crack,” Eli shrugged. 

“Do you feel that you are qualified to be here?”

“Oh, absolutely not,” Eli answered without hesitation. 

“Then why do you think you should remain aboard?” Strom asked.

“To be clear, I don’t think anyone is qualified to be here. There’s was no way to prepare for something like this, but we all did what we could to survive.”

“Would you agree that your complete lack of formal education and credentialing of any kind has made you more of a liability than an asset?”

“No,” Eli scoffed.

“What makes you say that?”

“The SGC didn’t beam a professor from MIT out of his office to help them solve the mysteries of the universe. They beamed a nobody out of his mom’s living room onto a spaceship because they thought I was the right person for the job.”

“Do you think they made a mistake?”

“We’re still alive, so…” Eli shrugged.

“You assisted in the civilian mutiny that tried to take the ship from the military control, why should I believe that you won’t try something like that again?”

“Let me explain everything wrong with what you just said,” Eli leaned forwards. “I didn’t assist in a mutiny, that was mostly Camille and Rush. I was caught in the middle of it. I just wanted to keep people from getting killed. The circumstances that led to all of that are over now. Everyone has changed, and that crap won’t happen again.”

“Circumstances could change at any moment,” Strom said. 

“We’re not those people anymore.” 

“Tell me, what’s stopping you from trying to take the ship?” Strom pushed forward. 

“I don’t want to. I never wanted to. I just want to survive long enough to get home.”

“If you thought taking control of the ship would get you home would you take it?”

“Let’s be honest. If I wanted to take this ship I would have done it by now. No one could stop me. I know this ship better than anyone else, but if all the time I spent trying to save everyone by myself isn’t proof enough for you then nothing I say will convince you. Next question.”

Eli sat back in his chair and crossed his arms as he looked Strom in the eyes. 

Rush led the other seven department heads into the control interface junction as he grudgingly gave them the instructional orientation of the ships systems. General Spears made it an order, but it was only when Colonel Young explained to Rush that the quicker the android departments heads were brought up to speed, the quicker Rush could be left alone to study the ship while they took the majority of the work load off of him. 

“Because this is so close to the gate room it was one of the first things we found, and when we realized that we could operate some of the ships systems we used as a bridge until we found the actual bridge,” Rush pointed the computer core in the center of the chamber as the androids circled and examined it. 

“There are three consoles, two on the wall and one mounted directly on the core. You can use either of the three to bring up readouts for various ships systems. If you wish for a more detailed analysis there is also a holographic display function,” Rush explained. “From here you could access many of the ships functions. We used this until we located the actual bridge. The critical functions have been locked out from here, and can only be operated from the bridge now, but you can still monitor them here.”

“What can we actually operate from here?” Adams asked. 

“Less vital functions such as basic power management, internal sensors, and the stasis chambers can still be accessed as well as monitored from here by anyone with the proper clearance,” Rush answered. “But more importantly you’ll be able to monitor and operate your own departments from this location.”

“Why would we need to do that?” Holtzman asked.

“Should some catastrophe occur on the ship which prevented you from getting directly to your spaces, and on this ship that’s a very real possibility, you can still operate them to some extent from here,” Rush looked around at the scientists as they processed the reminder of how precarious life on Destiny was.

“Does anyone have any questions?” Rush asked the group. “Do you need me to repeat anything?”

“No,” Lt Col Booth said flatly. “We all literally have photographic memories as androids.”

“Yes…about that. As androids how should I address you? Do you prefer android or…?

“Doctor,” Adams said. Yanxin, Holztman, and Yee nodded in agreement. 

“By my rank and name,” Booth added. 

“Synthetic American,” Page mumbled quickly and quietly as he glanced sideways at the other androids. 

“Oh, are we finally doing names?” SRT Grayson overheard the conversation as he was passing through one of the corridors and he ducked his head into the control interface room. “Because I like droid. I want to be a droid so I can tell people ‘I am the droid you’re looking for’. Awesome, right?” Grayson looked around at the other scientists. Page nodded but saw that no one else was and quickly stopped. 

“Droid,” Rush nodded as he turned back to the council to resume his explanation. 

Strom stared at Eli across the table in the communications lab for several seconds before he spoke. 

“Why do you feel you should be allowed to stay on Destiny once the gate is operational?” Strom demanded. 

“Are you planning on sending me back?” Eli asked.

“Should I?”

“Uh…no,” Eli replied, confused.

“Why not? There are surely scientists better suited for your duties.”

“Oh, this again. Yeah, well, good luck finding them.”

“You seem to think very highly of your abilities.”

“We’re all still alive, so…”

“And you feel this makes you irreplaceable?”

“At this point the only person less replaceable than me is Rush, and you don’t want him to be the only one on this ship that understands it.”

“Anyone can be replaced,” Strom said flatly.

“I’ll remember you said that,” Eli countered. “It’s interesting though, that you asked why I should be ‘allowed’ to stay, not if I ‘wanted’ to stay.”

“Mr. Wallace…”

“Let’s get this straight, with my experience I could run an entire research division on Auralon, or get a spot at the SGC on Earth, or maybe just go into the private sector and make a fortune. If worse came to worst I could just pack a bag and live out my life on any of the million worlds in this galaxy alone. Either way, I’m not going to justify everything I did to survive to someone that didn’t have to live through it. 

Young shifted the stack of folders and the datapad from under his left arm as he glanced down at his watch. It was one minute to 1900 hours and he scowled to himself for not being earlier to the department head meeting. He opened the door to his left and walked into the primary conference room. It was just down the hall from the captains’ ready room and further down the hall was the side entrance to the bridge.

The eight department heads were already sitting at the long rectangular burnished bronze table, waiting for him. Young walked around them to the back of the room and set everything down on the corner of the table to his left. He activated the keyboard in front of him and raised the three monitors built into the table in front of him. They were similar to the others found all around the ship with the center monitor being the largest of the three. A single monitor rose up in front of the other eight people sitting at the table.

“This is Executive Officer Colonel Young beginning the first department head meeting,” Young said towards the microphone on the monitor in front of him. “Also present are: Dr. Yee, department head of Medical, Dr. Holtzman, head of Engineering, Lieutenant Scott, acting head of ships security, Lt Col Booth, head of Gate Operations, Dr. Adams, head of Data Core Analysis, Dr. Rush, acting head of Ancients Sciences, Dr. Yanxin, head of Exploratory Sciences, and Dr. Page, head of Biological Life Support Systems.”

“Dr. Yee let’s start with you,” Young said, as he looked to his right at the person just beside him. “How is medical coming?”

“I’ve conducted physicals on all of the crew that are currently out of stasis and it’s exactly what we expected. Everyone just coming out of stasis show signs of malnutrition, hypoxia, and severe prolonged stress related problems. That is, with the exception of Mr. Wallace who seems to be in better health now than when he arrived on board,” Dr. Yee began. “We anticipated this, and we’ve given the crew members affected massive doses of vitamins and supplements to counter these effects along with some proper food. I’ve also begun rotating crew members down to Hawaii World in small groups to counter the hypoxia problems.”

“Hawaii World?” Dr. Page asked. 

“Eli called it that and the name seems to have stuck,” Young explained. 

“Do we name planets?” Dr. Yanxin asked.

“Normally no, but we’re giving Eli this one,” Rush interjected. “The ship assigns designations to the worlds it encounters, and usually that’s enough.”

“How quickly can the crew return to duty?” Young asked Yee. 

“Once someone comes out of stasis, they need five to seven days off ship to recover before you can expect them back,” Yee said. “This is about much more than just recovering from hypoxia. As you’re well aware the crew has endured a tremendous mental strain for a prolonged period of time, and most of them are civilians, which means they’ve never had to deal with these kinds of conditions.”

“Can we safely cut that to three days?” Young asked.

“Minimum, five days. They’re performing duties on the planet while they are there, which is also helping them to recover, so they are still contributing but they need time to psychologically decompress before they return to the ship.”

“Five days then,” Young made a note on keyboard in front of him. “What about the department itself?”

“We have all the materials for a stage three Surgical Hospital on board, and we’re almost halfway through setting it up.” 

“Excellent,” Young nodded. He turned to Holtzman. “What is the status of Engineering?”

“My department is settled in and we’re working our way through a million years of previous diagnostics, while running current ones. Everyone is still learning the systems and adjusting to this dialect of Ancient, but here is our preliminary report of the ships engines,” Holztman said as he brought up his report on his station and sent it to Young’s. 

“What’s the short explanation?” Young asked Holtzman. 

“Everything should be broken, but only some things are broken,” Holtzman said. 

“Sounds accurate,” Young muttered. “Lieutenant Scott?”

“My teams have secured all the depressurized spaces that we just couldn’t get to before. While doing that we recovered a large supply of usable equipment, but the real find is the ships actual armory,” Scott explained as he turned and picked up a black duffle bag from the floor beside him. He unzipped it and took out a pistol and set it on the table in front of him. “This is the ship’s side arm.”

“Ships side arm?” Yee asked. 

“Destiny has a dispenser for each of the weapons in the armory. It’s like the Kino balls, Destiny can make as many as we want” Scott said. Next, he took out a compact rifle, a larger heavy rifle, and a cartridge that fit into the hand grip of each weapon with a row of glowing lights along its length. “We think these are the batteries that act like magazines that go into each of the weapons to power them. They’re recharged on the charging plates around the ship. We’d like an opportunity to take them planet side to test their range.”

“Granted,” Young grinned at Scott. “Don’t shoot your eye out.”

“No, Sir,” Scott smiled back. 

“We’ve moved all of the existing weapons from the ships armory to the armory we have in the pressurized section for now so we have easy access should it be necessary. Between our own arms and what the ship had in it’s armory we are more than able to arm everyone on the ship.”

“Outstanding,” Young said. 

“While we were walking the rest of the ships, we discovered more dispensers. This is a communication device,” Scott handed the small device of stained sliver and bronze over to Young. “We’re not sure what the rage is yet, but I’m pretty sure the specs say we can talk from person to person anywhere on a planet and to Destiny if it’s in orbit.”

“Produce enough so that everyone going off ship has one,” Young told Scott. 

“We located another dispenser for the Environmental suits along with the specialized tools to repair kits for the suits. The dispenser isn’t functional, it looks like there was a fire in that space, but eventually we can repair it,” Scott said. “It’s not an immediate priority at the moment because we recovered twenty-four more suits and the kits to repair them spread out in the ships other air locks.”

“Repair all the suits we’ve been using,” Young order Scott. 

“We’ve already started on that.”

“So, the ship just makes everything?” Holtzman asked.

“Not everything, just the consumable technology,” Rush explained. “They expected Destiny to be out here for thousands of years or more, and there’s no way they could have carried enough of anything to last that long. Instead they created a means to produce what they would need as they needed it. It’s just like the Kinos.”

“We covered every square inch of the ship and made a detailed evaluation of the condition of everything. It’s as bad as you would expect, but I’ve also suggested the next group of spaces to open in my report,” Scott said as he typed on the keyboard in front of him. “I’m sending it to you now.” 

“Lieutenant Colonel Booth tell me about Gate Operations,” Young continued the meeting.

“I’m currently reviewing all the records of travel on and off Destiny since the arrival of the expedition and I’m writing a new set of guidelines for all gate travel as it pertains to Destiny,” She said. “This will include any of the current applicable procedures used in the Milky Way.”

“I’m sorry, what exactly is your job?” Rush asked. 

“I’ll be overseeing the two gate teams that will operate from Destiny,” Booth explained. 

“Gate teams?” Rush asked Young. “Do we need gate teams?” 

“The IOA has decided that the Destiny expedition would benefit from two teams of highly qualified SG personnel,’ Booth continued. “They’ll be the tip of the spear for the scientific study of the expedition as well as first contacts and all On World exploration.” 

“It’s for the safety of the crew,” Young added. “Do you have all of the personnel files yet?”

“Not yet, the IOA is making last minute changes to include Tau’ri, Jaffa, Tok’ra, and operatives from the Coalition of Worlds,” Booth replied. 

“Coalition of Worlds?” Scott asked. 

“It’s part of the war in the Milky Way, we’re supposed to get briefed on it soon,” Young answered. “Dr. Adams, tell me about the data core.”

“I haven’t even accurately been able to measure the amount of data Destiny has collected yet,” Adams said. “There is more than a million years of telemetry through countless galaxies in Destiney’s databanks, but I still haven’t located the system failure that stopped Destiney’s automatic uploads to Auralon.”

“Auralon wants the first upload on Friday so, fix the glitch. Sooner is better than later,” Young said. “Dr. Rush, tell me about Ancient Sciences.” 

“You more or less know everything already,” Rush commented. 

“Humor me,” Young countered. 

“I’ve determined a variety of technologies specific to Destiny alone, but I can’t be sure about anything until we’ve got the entire ship pressurized and I’ve investigated every inch. While we know what most of these technologies are for, we still know almost nothing about how they function,” Rush said. “I’m bringing Dr. Inman out of stasis tomorrow, as a chemical engineer he’s best suited to help synthesize replacement materials for the life support cartridges.” 

“Do you have your report?” Young asked. 

Rush sighed, and then leaned forwards typing into the keyboard in front of him. Young looked down at the monitor in front of him and then turned to the next department head. 

“Dr. Yanxin, exploratory sciences?” 

“We’ve gotten all of the equipment moved from the cargo bay into each of the six different labs, but we’re still unpacking and setting them up,” He said. 

“Timeline?” 

“All six should be fully operational in three weeks at the latest,” Yanxin explained. 

“Keep at it,” Young said before he turned the last department head. “Dr. Page, biological life support systems.”

“Oh, this is very exciting,” Page began. 

“Yes, we’re all very thrilled,” Young commented in a monotone. “Continue.”

“Yes, of course. The garden has been scrubbed and sterilized and we’re preparing to plant all of the food bearing plants tomorrow. We’ll be planting…”

“I’ve read the list,” Young cut him off. “What about hydroponics?”

“That’s going to take longer because we have to flush the system before we can sterilize it. There seems to be a million of years of some kind of…residue.”

“That explains the taste,” Young mumbled. “How long until it’s producing anything?”

“We’ll still need to sterilize it and the system is more intricate than we initially thought,” Page said. 

“It seemed simple enough when we were using it before,” Scott commented. 

“You were only using a small fraction of the labs capabilities,” Page told Scott. 

“What are those panels in the hallways?” Holztman asked Page. 

“I’m so glad you asked,” Page smiled.

“I’m not,” Rush mumbled. 

“Those are self-contained sheets of a moss-fungus hybrid that grows by radiosynthesis instead of photosynthesis,” Page explained. 

Holtzman just looked at him and shrugged. 

“Moss has the most leaf surface area of all plants, which means it is the most efficient at carbon dioxide reduction and oxygen production. The fungus that it is hybridized with was discovered in the Chernobyl nuclear facility feeding on the radiation there. The combination is a highly efficient biological air scrubber that can grow in the dark on the ambient radiation on the ship.”

“How much radiation are we talking about?” Scott asked. 

“I’m not worried about it,” Page answered. 

“You’re an android,” Scott frowned.

“Yes, I’m aware,” Page said before turning back to Young. 

Scott looked at Dr. Yee, but the doctor just glanced back at him and shook his head dismissively.

“Aquaponics is still be assembled in the cargo bay, and we think that it will be fully functional in about two weeks,” Page continued. 

“How is aquaponics different from hydroponics?” Scott asked.

“Hydroponics is, at it’s most basic level, simply growing plants without using any soil in just water. Aquaponics is a food production system that combines hydroponics in symbiosis with aquaculture to create nutrient dense plants and fish,” Page explained to Scott.

“I don’t…” Scott trailed off. 

“Plants grow in a fish tank and the fish excrement feeds the plants,” Rush blurted out. 

“Am I really that hungry?” Scott himself. 

“We have a lot more of the protein powder now,” Young commented. 

“Oh,” Scott took a deep breath of relief, “okay.”

“Aeroponics, timeline?” Young asked Page trying to skip the detailed explanation of what the system did.

“Assembled, and we’re filling the automated watering systems,” Page answered. “They should be food producing in about three months. The algae bioreactors are still not online yet because they were purpose built to fit into the Atlas, so we’re restructuring them to function outside of that ship.” 

“Timeline?” Young asked. 

“The algae cultures should be fully grown in about two months,” Page answered. 

“Are we going to be eating algae now?” Rush asked. 

“It can produce edible biomass, but it’s primary function is a backup carbon dioxide removal system. Once it’s fully functional it should be able to scrub the ships air supply almost as well as the ships own system.”

“That’s fantastic,” Scott said. 

“It’s going to allow us to open up much more of the ship,” Young added. “What’s the status of the vertical farm?”

“The fame work is assembled, we’re installing the watering system, lights, and the sensors, but we won’t be able to plant for at least another week. We’re projecting it to be food bearing in six months,” Page said, and turned to everyone else at the table. “The projection is that Destiny will have a self-sustaining food supply for the entire crew within one year.”

“So, are we going vegetarian?” Scott asked. 

“We’re testing out a bio-reactor that will create artificial meat similar to beef,” Page answered. 

“Yeah, vegetarian,” Scott looked at Rush as the scientist nodded back to him.

“MREs,” Young mumbled to himself. “Alright, do I have everyone’s reports?”

Everyone around the table either nodded to Young or began typing to send their reports to him. 

“This concludes out first department head meeting,” Young said as he turned off the recorder. “Good meeting everyone, nice and short.”

Scott picked up the weapons from the table and put them back into his duffel bag as everyone stood up and slowly milled out of the conference room. 

Eli took a long deep breath as he waited for Strom to resume the questions.

“Tell me why you think Colonel Young and the military members of the crew were not only ill-suited for this expedition, but contributed to disaster after disaster, Strom began. 

“I never said that,” Eli said flatly. 

“Wouldn’t you agree that they have made catastrophic mistakes?”

“Everyone has made huge mistakes. Why are you just asking about the military crew members?”

“But you would agree that mistakes have been made, and that the ship belongs under civilian control?” Strom continued. 

“Do you mean the IOA? Or Camille? Or you?” Eli asked. “Could things have been done differently? Probably. Could things have been done better? At this point, who cares?”

“The IOA cares. Earth cares,” Strom corrected himself.

“The IOA? That’s why you’re here yourself, isn’t it? Having trouble recruiting for the IOA?”

“Where do you see yourself if the hierarchy of the crew?” Strom changed subjects.

“I…I don’t know,” Eli shrugged, confused by how quickly Strom changed the conversation. “I don’t really, I don’t know military ranks.”

“You’re a civilian, not a service member,” Strom said. 

“I guess, space handyman. I have to fix everything; I don’t know what that’s called.”

Young sat beside Strom across the desk from Speers in the captain’s ready room as he outlined the department head meeting.

“Dr. Page is making progress, we’ve got half of the supplies in Cargo Bay 2 stacked or stowed so his team has the room to begin assembling most of the BLSS systems,” Young explained. 

“What can we do to speed it up?” Speers asked. 

“You should take Rush off of what he’s doing to speed the process up,” Strom said looking to his left at Young. 

“Lieutenant Scott and his two SR teams have made a very thorough initial walk through of the ship. He can spare one of the teams to help Dr. Page,” Young countered looking at Speers. 

“What about Eli?” Strom continued. 

“Eli’s time is too valuable to spend assembling a vertical farm,” Young explained while looking down at the tablet in his lap.

“Put the Number Two team on it,” Speers told Young. “Take anyone else with a science background out of stasis you think can help.” 

“That won’t really help because Dr. Yee has ordered that anyone coming out of stasis will need time on Hawaii World for recovery before they can come back onto duty,” Young countered. 

“How long?” Strom asked. 

“Seven days,” Young answered. 

“See if you can get Dr. Yee to cut that time down some,” Speers told Young. 

“The people coming out of stasis are suffering hypoxia, malnutrition, and serious anxiety related problems. They need time to recover and they can help collect samples while they’re there, but I’ll talk to Dr. Yee and see if he can get it down to five days,” Young conceded. 

“Why don’t you just order Dr. Yee to limit it to one day?” Strom asked Speers. 

Speers and Young stared at Strom for a few seconds before moving on. 

“What’s the status on the medical department?” Speers ask Young. 

“They’re still unpacking, stowing supplies, and assembling equipment but Dr. Yee says they’re hallway to being fully operational,” Young said. 

“Inform Dr. Holtzman that we’re going to pressurize engineer at 0800 tomorrow,” Speers told Young. 

“That’s a very large space. Life support isn’t there yet.” Young explained. 

“Why don’t we wait to pressurize the science labs? Those science teams are all androids so they don’t need life support,” Strom suggested.

“That will put sample collection and study behind schedule,” Speers said quietly to herself.

“Even if we do that it’s still going to overextend life support. Engineering is big enough to take almost 25% of what little air we have,” Young cautioned her. 

“BLSS and life support will catch up,” Speers said.

“This isn’t an issue of carbon dioxide build up, it’s available oxygen. There just isn’t enough,” Young said.

“That’s unacceptable,” Speer snapped.

“That’s Destiny,” Young shrugged. “We have personnel on Hawaii world using the compressors to refill the air banks after we empty them in the gate room, but it’s going to take time to bring in the volume of air we’ll need to open more spaces.”

“How long?”

“At least another month.”

“That seems excessive,” Strom commented. 

“It is,” Young looked at Strom. “But it needs to be. You have a critical perception and moral issue on the ship.”

“Explain,” Speers said to Young. 

“Half the crew doesn’t need to breath, and the other half is just starting to come back from the point of breaking down. As an android commander the last thing that you need is for half of the crew thinking you don’t care.”

“Two weeks seems like a fair compromise,” Strom said looking down at his tablet.

“One month,” Speers sighed. Strom looked up at her but before he could push his point Speers moved on. “How are Dr. Rush and Lieutenant Scott performing in their new roles?”

“Rush is Rush. He’s still self-absorbed and caught up in his own research, but now that we have a much larger crew to deal with all the problems that pop up every day we don’t need him to be in ten places at once. Now he can focus, and as the rest of the crew learns the ships systems he’ll have more time to work with Eli.”

“What about Lieutenant Scott?” Speers continued. 

“He’s always been an invaluable member of the crew, and his experience makes the Special Response teams much more efficient. He’s a reliable second in command, and he takes to leadership very naturally.”

“I’ve noticed that Rush is still not wearing his uniform,” Strom commented. 

“While Destiny may be part of a fleet, there are unique circumstances that must be considered here,” Young said.

“Rules are rules,” Strom countered. 

“Rules have exceptions,” Young said. “We’ve reached a very delicate balance on this ship. It took a long time and there are a lot of changes being made very quickly right now. It may be better to let the crew settle a bit more before imposing strict Uni Regs.”

“I want Dr. Rush in a uniform by the end of the week,” Speers finally said. “Dismissed. 

“General,” Young nodded as he stood up and turned to leave.

Strom stood up and followed Young to the doorway but stopped and waited for it to close before he turned to face Speers. 

“You have something to say Dr. Strom?” Speers asked without looking up from her desk.

“General Speers, I represent the IOA on this expedition, but it seems that my concerns are not being heard clearly.”

“Your concerns are being heard, and given all the consideration that they deserve,” Speers looked up at him. “Let’s be very clear, this ship is under military control, not civilian. Your role is to observe and report.”

“The IOA has established the goals for this expedition…”

“And I will carry them out in the manner in which I see fit,” Speer said flatly. “Dismissed.”

Eli sat in the communication lab starring Strom in the eyes for almost two full minutes before either spoke. Eli had expected these meetings to be about getting to know the crew, but they were clearly to find any reason possible to justify getting rid of them when the time came. This upset Eli more than he ever would have expected. 

If Strom had simply asked Eli if he wanted to stay he would have taken the first chance to get off the ship, but to be treated like this after everything he’d done for everyone else infuriated him. Had this happened to him before he was kidnapped-beamed out of his house onto a space ship he would have gone along with it, but he wasn’t that person anymore. Eli didn’t know exactly who he was at the moment, but he wasn’t going to be condescended to by what he was coming to think of as over paid middle management. 

“Mr. Wallace,” Strom broke the silence, “Your official position will be a civilian contractor. You will have full security clearance, and your pay grade is described here along with your duties.” 

Strom slid a folder across the table to Eli. He slowly reached for the folder, anger replaced by confusion. He opened the folder and flipped through the papers for a second before looking up at Strom. 

“So, my job description is still fix everything and save everyone.”

“In the broadest sense, yes.”

“My title is…Ancient Science Technician? No,” Eli closed the folder and pushed it back to Strom.

“No?” Strom asked. 

“No. That makes me sound like an electrician. We’re going to change that to Ancient Science Specialist.”

“Are we?”

“We are. If you’re going to make Rush the head of the department and me the only person working under him then the least you can do is give me a better title.”

“I believe that can be arranged.”

“You were never going to force me off the ship, were you?”

“We’re done here. Thank you Mr. Wallace,” Strom stood up and held out his hand.

Eli understood that he wasn’t going to get anything out of Strom at this point, so he shook his android hand and left. 

“See,” Eli said to Rush, pointing at the holographic display over the console against the wall in the control interface room, “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re right,” Rush agreed quietly. “We should be able to interact with them.”

“I’ve tried from here and the bridge, but it doesn’t seem to matter, whenever I try to reach Ginn is just keep getting error messages. Maybe you can figure out something I couldn’t.”

“Maybe,” Rush mumbled as he looked deeper into the system display.

“Anyway, it’s late,” Eli said looking at the watch he’d been issued in the last resupply. “I’m going to bed.”

“Any luck sleeping in the chair?” 

“It’s worse than trying to sleep on a plane. I talked Dr. Page into giving me the mattress from his quarters.”

“He wouldn’t need it, would he?”

“Sleeping on the mattress on the floor is pretty much the same as when I slept in the shuttle for a few months.”

“Maybe we’ll get real beds at some point,” Rush speculated. 

“I think the only way we’re ever going to see real beds will be back on Earth,” Eli said as he walked away. 

Rush stayed at the console for two more house before giving up for the night, deactivating it, and walking back to his quarters. The ships lights were dimmed to simulate night, and the only sounds were the ambient noises of the ship itself. When Rush reached his quarters he undressed and went to bed. 

In the humming dimness of the ship, in the control interface room, the console that Rush was working at lit up. The monitor flickered on for a moment with text scrolling through quickly and then it went dark for an instant before coming back on. For a few seconds the screen was displaying the feed from the camera in Rush’s quarters. 

He shifted in his bed, unaware. Then the screen went black and the console deactivated.


End file.
